Well that made that easy! Yesterday I turned down the offer at the ranch. The position was going to require shared living quarters, and with A it just wasn't going to be feasible. I'm moving forward, excited about TFA and all that lies in store.
I have to take the Praxis II General Sciences Content Exam in January, so I suspect I'll spend most of December with my nose in the study guide trying to learn everything I can about physical and earth sciences, since my background in biochemistry covers neither rocks nor...whatever you learn in physics.
The timeline looks something like this:
- January 15: Take (and pass!) the Praxis II
- February/March - June: Begin interviewing with middle and high schools in Denver, Sheridan, Aurora, and Commerce City for any and all available 7-12 grade science positions
- June - July: 5 week intensive TFA summer institute in Phoenix (Phoenix! In the summer! Yuck.)
- July - August: Hit the ground running, come back from Phoenix and start teaching...and find a house in Denver, and school for A, and move.
The summer following my first year, I'll begin my Masters of Education program at CU-Denver. TFA offers transitional funding (free money!) to help cover my moving costs, as well as stipends that I can use to pay back my undergrad loans, or apply to the masters program.
As it turns out, a friend of a friend is teaching in Denver with TFA and has the exact same placement as me. (Cue choir of angels singing)
He's offered so many helpful suggestions, and helped to answer some of my questions already (is it hard? do you like your kids? do you ever have any free time? etc). One thing that I am really excited for is that TFA is very big on building connections between current corps members and alumni in the area, which creates a large professional network of support to help me as a new teacher, and also as I continue down my career path.
Last week A came home from school and asked me, "mom - what's a family?" Without missing a beat I told him, "A family is made up of people who love us. Families come in lots of different shapes and sizes." He proceeded to rattle off everyone he knew that loves him (including our cats - although they tolerate him more than love him) and that was that. Tonight when we were talking about Thanksgiving, I asked him what he was thankful for. He looked at me and said, "My family. They make me happy!"
He currently loves (and I'm sure is thankful for) the movie "Thomas's Misty Island Adventure", his new snow boots, playing with his train table, taking baths to play in (but not to get clean!) riding horses, and practicing his American Sign Language alphabet. He's excited about learning to ski this year, and spending Christmas at his Dad's house.
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| Ready for snow! November 2010 |
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| Enjoying the rock climbing wall at Fossil Creek Park October 2010 |
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| At the Tour de Fat September 2010 |
This year I am standing firm on my "no toys with batteries" policy, and he's getting tumbling lessons, ski lessons, and some new puzzles.
I'm looking forward to spending the next few days with family and friends who are in town for Thanksgiving, eating foods that I only eat once a year, watching lots of football, and getting to turn my brain off for a bit!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
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